VLC 1.0.2 in Ubuntu 9.10 does not detect embedded subtitles

[ds3]

I have some videos recorded from broadcast digital TV that include embedded subtitles. The subtitles are detected and play in VLC 1.0.4 on Windows XP, but not in VLC 1.0.2 on 64 bit Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) installed from the repository. The videos are .mpg format and was recorded using Hauppauge's WinTV software. I'm not sure what the exact encoding format is.

Is this a setting problem, or a problem with the VLC build?

Thanks.

[funman]

I wonder where you got that 1.0.4 version of VLC.

[ds3]

Oops, sorry; the XP version is 1.0.3. It does find the subtitles when 1.0.2 in Ubuntu 64 bit does not, though, so I'm still curious what's causing the difference in detection.

Thanks.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

missing zvbi ?

[ds3]

Yes, I was missing zvbi. However, I installed it (via Synaptic which also installed libzvbi0 and libzvbi-common) and the subtitles still aren't detected. The version for all three packages is 0.2.33-1. Any other suggestions?

Thanks again.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Installing zvbi is one thing. Now you must install the VLC zvbi plugin too.

[ds3]

Sorry, but can direct me to either a .deb build for 64 bit systems, a 64 bit binary, or instructions on how to compile and install the zvbi addin? All I can locate are a bunch of .rpm builds (for example, at http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3?stat=3& ... &srodzaj=3), for which I'm not sure which one I should try to convert since there are several 64 bit versions, and what appears to be the source (at http://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc/modules/codec/) for which I don't see any sort of readme or instructions. I'm generally okay with installations from binaries, but compiling source is a little out of my range. Once I have it compiled or find a compiled version, do I just stick it in the addins directory or is there something else I need to do in VLC?

Thanks again.

[ds3]

So I downloaded an RPM package (vlc-plugin-zvbi-1.0.2-1mdv2010.0.x86_64.rpm), which looked like the right version, and extracted libzvbi_plugin.so to /usr/lib/vlc/codec. (Note: /usr/lib64 links to /usr/lib in Ubuntu Karmic so this was where the other plugins were located.) VLC now claims to have the plugin "VBI and Teletext decoder" with capability "decoder" and score "51" installed, but the subtitles still aren't detected. I thought this might be a problem with not converting correctly from .rpm to .deb so I tried using Alien, but it gives an error (failed line 155, which appears to have to do with rpm2cpio rather than something being wrong with the files) so I couldn't compare that. I also tried a "newer" addin package (vlc-plugin-zvbi-1.0.4-1plf2010.1.x86_64.rpm) with the same results (couldn't use Alien, manual extraction of the .so file was detected by VLC, but the subtitles weren't found).

I'd welcome any other suggestions.

Thanks again.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

You can check in the message dialog, second tab if zvbi is loaded.

[ds3]

I don't think it loaded. I took a screenshot of the Messages, Module Tree tab, but I guess I can't paste images directly here and I couldn't seem to copy it as text. Under "input" and "video output" and "subpicture" it listed "spu text "freetype" (27890504)" along with two lines about "scale", but nothing that looked like subtitles or teletext. Under "access "access_file" (28403304)" it listed a stream filter record, demux "ps" and decoders "libmpeg2" and "a52" but again nothing that looked like it related to subtitles.

Could it be having interference with the "Teletext subtitles decoder" listed separately in the plugins and extensions? In the Windows version I only show "VBI and Teletext decoder" in the plugin list, but they're both there in Ubuntu.

[xtophe]

Installing random package (not even targetted at the same distro) is quite risky

So check if the module is there or not:

vlc --no-plugins-cache --list |grep zvbi

If not fill a whislist bug in launchpad